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Me too. But I think the NZ ruling class wants them. They want two main parties, with smaller coalition parties, to ensure stability. That means National and Labour. But Labour could continue to decline - at present they are losing support to both the Greens and NZ First. Winston Peters knows this is his best shot, he's in his early 70s and is going all out for NZF. I think he is targeting Labour's vote in the provinces. The fact that he personally won Northland, which is mainly a poor regional area, and just totally thrashed Labour (it was a National Party seat) indicates that he and his party can beat Labour in the provinces, plus he's economically a bit to the left of Labour. Ironically, his bid for support in 'the regions' is probably having the effect of toning down his anti-immigrant policies. Small town and provincial NZ is crying out for people; they want immigrants and they don't care much whether the immigrants come from East Asia, Britain, Australia, wherever (ie they don't care about their skin colour). I think there has been a sea-change in NZ on attitudes to immigration. The attempt by Labour and New Zealand First to see who can be anti-immigrant (well, in particular anti-Chinese) has not got Labour any traction - if anything it's put people off them. John Key used to poke the borax at Labour as a bunch of "xenophobes" (which is true). The National Party is far less racist in terms of immigration than Labour (including the Labour left). On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 9:49 PM, Gary MacLennan <gary.maclenn...@gmail.com> wrote: > Does the fate of Pasok wait for the Labour Party, Phil? Profoundly hope so. > > comradely > > Gary > > > <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> > Virus-free. > www.avg.com > <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> > <#m_-1993218818754696370_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> > > On Mon, Jul 31, 2017 at 7:40 PM, Philip Ferguson via Marxism < > marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > >> ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** >> #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. >> #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. >> #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. >> ***************************************************************** >> >> >> Less than 8 weeks out from the election, Labour continues to decline in >> the >> polls. Considering this is the end of National's third term, this is a >> unique situation in NZ political history. >> >> But given that National (the 'Tories') are a bit to the left of Labour on >> a >> number of important poltical issues, it's not really a surprise - although >> it is to much of the left - that more blue-collar workers voted National >> than Labour last time and will probably do so again. >> >> Yet more bad news for Labour: >> https://rdln.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/more-bad-news-for-labour/ >> _________________________________________________________ >> Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm >> Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/opt >> ions/marxism/gary.maclennan1%40gmail.com >> > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
